TRC commissioner slams NPA’s coverup of pressures endured when addressing cases

One of the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has slammed prosecutors in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for failing to speak out in protest on the pressure they claim to have endured when addressing TRC cases.

Yasmin Sooka, who was a commissioner of the TRC which investigated apartheid era crimes at the dawn of democracy, has been testifying at the TRC cases inquiry this week.

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The inquiry is investigating allegations of deliberate efforts by those in power to hold back the prosecution of TRC cases

The TRC cases inquiry has heard that the former Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in the NPA, Advocate Jacobus Pretorius, admitted that there was political interference in investigating TRC cases but claimed it was not the NPA’s doing.

When asked about this, Sooka called it shameful.

“He paints himself and prosecutors as if they are victims of apartheid-era crimes and their families and the only two who were courageous enough to take action were Vusi Pikoli and Anton Ackerman. The rest of them just acquiesced and went along.”

Sooka has questioned what this move by prosecutors suggests about the NPA as an institution.

On Wednesday morning, veteran investigative journalist Michael Schmidt will take to the witness stand.